How to Handle Complex shipping in the woocommerce website?

Author: Sandeep Kanojia

Introduction

You are all set with your online website store on the WooCommerce platform, you’ve set up the product catalog and configured the payment modes (if you did not configure your woocommerce theme then see our article Why do you choose woocommerce website).

In the Woocommerce store, the shipping method will provide because of shipping option is to use to every customer, may want to have a low shipping cost however others may want to get their products within a day and they might be willing to pay a little extra for that services. That's the reason to choose woocommerce shipping options is always best for the customer.

According to a survey carried out by BigCommerce, the top three factors which determine whether people shop or not are the Price (87%), Shipping cost (80%) & Discount offers (71%). According to research conducted by SmallBizTrends, 28% of the shoppers will drop the shopping cart if the shipping costs are too high.

After looking at the above statistics, you can conclude two significant things:

  • Most of the Shoppers analyze the shipping costs before making any purchasing decision.

  • E-Commerce owners are missing out on customer profit opportunities due to high shipping costs.

Therefore, as an E-Commerce store owner, you need to give prime importance to the shipping functionality. WooCommerce platform provides you with default shipping functionality which makes the job of store owners very easy.

Woocommerce store usage percentage in 2020?

WooCommerce usage stats with other e-commerce website platforms. This makes the figures more real and helps us to understand WooCommerce’s true market share in 2019 and going into 2020.

Woocommerce is officially owned by Automattic, the company behind the wordpress.com; the Woocommerce is constantly upgraded with the latest trendy features, keeping it more adaptable to users. Thus, automatically increasing its reach to both store owners and buyers.

How does it work?

There are some basic calculations for shipping cost such as depending on the weight of the order. For example 1-10 kg:?150, 10-20 kg:?500, 20-30 kg:?900 and so on. It doesn’t look that advanced. But You can combine such rules with shipping classes and other conditions. This way you can set virtually any shipping cost for an order.

Every rule can add some cost to the total cost or subtract a cost from it. You can use different conditions such as:

  • when all items from the order weight from 0 kg to 7 kg, then add?200 to the shipping cost,

  • when items from shipping class "Promotion" are in the cart, then subtract?50 from the shipping cost,

  • if there are more than 10 items in the order, then add?80 to the shipping cost.

Woocommerce Shipping Integrations

There are 2 core features to manage and manipulate the shipping integration in woocommerce to achieve your desired shipping rules.

  1. Shipping Zones

  2. Shipping Methods

  1. Table Rate ( by additional Plugin )

  2. Flat Rate

  3. Local Pickup

  4. Free Shipping

Table Rate Shipping Methods

Every store is unique, with its own products and shipping needs, so every setup is different.

The table rate shipping methods module extends the woocommerce shipping option to giving the customizable shipping option.

Table rate shipping can define the shipping rates based on shipping destination have multiple rates per zone and add multiple, rules based on product weight, cost subtotal, number of times shipping class, price and so much.

Table Rate shipping Rule

WooCommerce Table Rate Shipping also works great for dropshipping with your ability to add custom table rates based on shipping class or with per-product table rates. The table rate shipping method uses a table to establish such rules.

Rule-based on

Conditions

Shipping class?

Cost to add

weight

0-10kg

no, every product

  • 200

items

any item

yes, "Promotion"

  • 50

items

10 or more items

no, every product

  • 150

Features of table rate

  • Shipping cost based on Price.

  • Shipping Cost based on total weight.

  • The shipping rate to be guided by country, Zip code, Postal code.

  • Several types of table rate calculation: Per order, Calculated per item, Calculated per line, Calculated per class.

  • Admin can enter the Shipping Title that will be displayed to the customers on the Checkout Page.

Flat Rates

In woocommerce logistics Flat rate shipping is applicable for all types of shipping boxes and packages, irrespective of the weight, size and other dimensions.

The flat rate shipping method is based according to different shipping Zones, and geographical areas

flat rate method is the user can define the different zone to set there fixed price range on the shipping method.

Flat Rates Features

  • Create shipping methods for specific countries

  • Create shipping methods if cart contains specific product

  • Create shipping methods if cart contains a specific category’s product

  • Create a shipping method based on cart subtotal condition

  • To create a new shipping Methods go to Woocommerce> setting from your WordPress dashboard.

  • Then You choose to ship and Choose your Zonename> Zone Regions> shipping methods as shown below the images.

Local Pickup

Local Pickup is a method that allows the customer to pick up the order themselves. local Pickup, methods are allowed your customers to know exactly where to go to pick up their products, and you know where to expect them. In local pickup, the method should be a creative one or more pickup locations (branches) and a customer can select the nearest pickup location and the best part of this method is customers and sellers will interact with each other. In the local pickup method, the best advantages are You can set a fee for the local pickup method but it’s fixed. You’ll charge every customer the same amount.

Local rates Features

  • Unlimited pickup Locations

  • Show pickup location based on products in the cart.

  • Define pick up location on a map

  • Search on google map.

  • Define contact details, email, working hours, etc for each pickup location.

  • Define various settings related to picking up points like cost, where to display pickup points, whether to show a map or not, show options in a radio button or dropdown, etc.

  • Allows multiple pickup locations

Free Shipping

Free shipping is the most important part of the effective promotions you can offer. It based on a minimum purchase or set up as a shopping cart price rule that applies when a set of conditions is met. You can set up free shipping when the cart contains a certain product or the opposite scenario where it’s only activated when the cart doesn’t contain a particular product. how to implement Shipping Rate. In free shipping can ensuring customers are ordering a certain quantity of products to activate their bonus free shipping. that's why we suggest its best part of increasing your sales and make a profit.

Here are some of the more relevant and acute points

  • 93% of consumers say shipping options are an important factor in their online shopping experience.

  • 88% said that free shipping with 5-7 day delivery time is more attractive than paying a fee for 1-2 day faster delivery

  • 3 in 5 consumers have increased their total spend in the past to qualify for free shipping

  • 68% have used a free shipping coupon code

One of the most complex parts about e-commerce software is creating shipping options that are configurable enough that people can create the shipping costs they want but the functionality isn't too complex that people are confused.